Monday, February 27, 2012

Milkshake/smoothie

I'm not sure what this is exactly.

It's closer to a milkshake I think.


This

Is an Oreo milkshake!



I really wanted a milkshake today.

Unfortunately,
We didn't have ice cream.


So, I made a banana-Oreo-thingy instead :)


I used:

1 frozen banana

Vanilla

Milk

Sweetener (I used syrup)

Oreos

And chocolate syrup!


Pour the choco syrup into glasses, blend the first 5 ingredients and pour them into the glasses!

Tah-dah!!


I admit, it's not the healthiest possible smoothie/milkshake,

But hey,

Sometimes you just need a chocolate banana milkshake.

:)


S'all for now!


~
Isabel

Regionals!

Our team arrived at the competition at 8, and the building with our "home room" in it was locked!

And I forgot to wear a coat! 

Brrrrr!!

So we had to wander around to find a building that was open and from there migrate from room to room until they finally opened the building we were supposed to be in.


Getting ready for individuals.

And no, that's not coffee
I brought my kefir smoothie in the tumbler: breakfast of champions! ;D




 Some of us (The Calculator team)
in our home room, the library!


We had a delicious lunch!



The competition well!

I did ok my individual test...

We did really well on our team tests!

We placed second for both 8 man and calculator!

And a few of our team members placed individually as well.

Even though our team was super small (11 people) God allowed us to place in different events at regionals!

Praise the Lord for blessing "Alpha-Omega Math Team"



The awards ceremony: Caleb drew pictures and we had to guess what he was trying to say.

It was a fun way to pass the time :)



After the competition we went out to Portillos to celebrate!


It was a good day!

Now time to prepare for state! :D




~
Isa


Friday, February 24, 2012

Today was a fun day :)


Spent the afternoon with 5am doing standardized testing pracitce, working out, singing, and chillin' x)

Oh and laughing. We did a lot of that :)



At dinner:

Sam: "So are you getting chickens?"

Me: "I don't know......"

Sam: “What??! Spring without chickens is like Christmas without a tree!”

Lol



Tonight we were sitting around talking and Sam reading off food from a list I had made.

Apparently she couldn't read my handwriting...

“Lap-torture salmon?.... Ooooohh Leftover salmon!”

I almost died laughing Lo9l





Tomorrow is regionals. 

Soo hyper! Can't wait!

Kinda sad that this is my last regionals!

But Lord willing, Alpha-Omega math club will go on to compete in many more regionals after this!

Anyways, we'll see how it goes.

No matter how I score, I'm thankful for the opportunity to participate in regionals! :)

Monday, February 20, 2012

Bread Making

Today was fun.


I made bread :)


Bread making is really awesome, but also time consuming.

It took a long time today cuz I was making other stuff at the same time.

But it's really worth the time for delicious, made-from-scratch bread.

The recipe we use makes 5 loaves but I used part of the dough for cinnamon rolls :)

So, for those of you who haven't made bread before, you're probably wondering:

"How do you make bread?"

Well, wonder no longer!

I'm here to show you!

:D




Step 1:
Assuming that you've already harvested the grain... ;)

Measure out the ammount of wheat your recipe calls for.
In my case, it was 16 cups.





Step 2:

Rev up the grinder and grind your grain!

This will take several minutes... 


Freshly ground flour (below):



Step 3:

Measure all ingredients but the flour into a bowl.

Mix, gradually adding flour till the dough pulls away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.

Then knead (or let your bread mixer machine knead) the dough for for 5 minutes.
  



Remove dough from bowl.




Step 4:

Divide dough into 5 pieces.
(Optional: set one of these pieces aside for cinnamon rolls.)

Shape dough into loaves and place in bread pans.

Let rise till loaves have doubled in size.

Then put them in the oven for the length of time your recipe calls for.



 
Step 5:

Meanwhile

(if you set a chunk dough aside)

You can start making your cinnamon rolls.

Get out cinnamon, sugar and butter.
Melt butter.

I used oil instead of butter, due to family dairy allergies.





Step 6:

Roll out dough till it's very thin.

Pour melted butter (or oil) on dough and spread.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Roll up the dough as tightly as possible till its all one big long snake.


Cut the "snake" into 2-3inch pieces, depending on how big you want your rolls to be.



Cover rolls with wet towel and let rise while bread cooks.  



Put them in to bake when the bread is done.






Tah-dah!

Finished bread: 


Finished rolls.

(If you so desire, you can ice the rolls after they've cooled.)




So now you know how to make bread/cinnamon rolls! :)



I owe everything I know about bread making to my super fantabulously amazing MOM! :D

She's an expert bread maker.

Mom is so wonderful to teach me how to do all this stuff
And she's so patient- even when I mess up whole batches of bread and it turns out goopey like play-dough or hard as a rock
:P

Thanks mom- I love you!! <3




Buenas noches a todos!!!
~
Isabel

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Thin Mints

I wanted to make some cookies today

And I had this recipe that I've been wanting to try for a long time.

Homemade "Thin Mints"!

You know, like the Girl Scout cookies?


This recipe is not a quick recipe.

Especially if you are me...

These took me over 2 hours to make.

So basically, make sure you have plenty of time when you make these.


They're not quite as sweet as real Thin Mints, but I like them this way.

Also, they weren't quite as light/crispy, possibly cuz I used 1/2 whole wheat flour.

Still, they were a delicious and healthier alternative to the famed Girl Scout cookies!


Here's how I made them:



Step 1:

Mix up the dough.

Form into flattened circle 3/4 inch thick and put in a baggy in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes.




Roll out the dough to the thickness of thin mints, and cut out with cookie cutter.




Bake for 10 minutes and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack if you have one.




While cookies are baking, melt chocolate in double boiler
(or if you're me, the MICROWAVE :)

Once cookies are completely cooled, coat cookies in chocolate and lift gently onto cookie tray with a fork.




Put the cookies in the freezer for 20 minutes, and vuala!
You're thin mint cookies are finished.




The recipe I used only made like 2 or 3 dozen.
Next time I make these, I think I'm gonna double the recipe to make my time more worth it.




So there you have it

Thin mint cookies!




Es todo por hoy-

Nos vemos!

~Isabel



Microwave Pizza

I've been trying a lot of microwave stuff  lately cuz it's so much faster than normal recipes.

Today I was looking for a fast lunch, and found a recipe for pan/microwave pizza.

You mix up the dough for normal pizza, brown it in a pan, add toppings and then microwave it.

It sounded delish so I decided to try making it :)

I was pleased with the results!

This pizza took me about 20 minutes to make, versus normal pizza which takes at least an hour.



Green onion, broccoli and cheese!! MMMMmmmm x)

It's not as crispy as oven pizza,  its more soft.

The flavor/texture is waaay better than the frozen microwave pizza from the store, in my opinion.

And when I make it from scratch like this, I can control how much oil/sodium is in it.

Next time I think I'm gonna do more veggies and less cheese, and maybe make a no-cheese one so my whole family can eat it.

Go Microwave!!!



~Isa

Friday, February 17, 2012

El Fin de Semana!!!

Hoy es viernes!

Manana es: El Fin de Semana!!!

Tuve mucho que hacer hoy.

Y un parte pequeno era mi vocabulario de espanol.
Hecho!.. mas o menos..
xD

Mi casa!!

Hay muchas cosas en mi casa.

Hay algunas camas, mesas, sofas,.

En la pared, hay un espejo, un cuadro, y muebles.

Que bonita.


Te gusta la comida del mar? Me parece deliciosa!
No he tratado comiendo tiburon, sardina, anchoa, cangrejo, calamar, ostra, mejillon o pulpo.
Me gusta las almejas y camarones y salmon y pescado en general. No me en encanta el atun, entonces, no me moleste.


Este ano, he estado pensando de profesiones y todo eso.

Mi amiga queria ser una abogada.

Concozco a algunas floristas.

Una otra amiga queria ser farmacuetica.

Mi tio es fontanero.

Conoci a muchos curujanos en mis semanas voluntando en el hospital.

Seria muy divertido ser un marinero o medico, yo creo.

Mi hermana se moleste al dentisto!

Personalmente, yo prefiero ser ama de casa, o cocinera, o maestra, o enfermera, o modista, o pianista, o peluquera, o traductora o musica, o actriz o cantante o escritora o posiblemente poeta. No lo se.


Bueno!




Today went by way too quickly!

That's what I get for waking up late.

Surprise sweet 16 party for a friend.

Funny story:

We were trying to decide how to surprise her when she walked in.

So we agreed to all bark like dogs...

But for some reason, when she walked in

I was the only one barking.

Everyone else said- can you believe it?- "Surprise!!!"

Lol


We spent 3 hours doing make-up and hair :)

 We're girly girls, yes :)

I am now educated in applying face masks, foundation, blush and eye shadow.

One of my friends curled my hair.

She is amazingly skilled with her straightner :)

This is my hair (after i got home from babysitting):

I <3 Curls.



After the party, me and my sis babysat for a few hours.

It was lovely.





Claro, tengo que acostarme.

Hasta luego!


~Isabel


Thursday, February 16, 2012

Busy Día!!

You like my spanglish title, no? 
:)



Math team today!

And lots of other stuff.

I've been going non-stop since I woke up and after this I'm off to a busy night of music!

Of course was able to find a few spare minutes to do a quick blog post :)



Guess what??

My t-shirt design won for math team!

I'm really exicted- we got our shirts today!!!

This is what they look like. This picture is a little brighter and pixel-y-er than real life, but whatever, you get the idea.

I think we're going to do duct tape numbers on the back like last year.

Can't wait for the competetion!

I'm the only senior on one of the team tests... Scary!

But we're a team.

We got this!




You know what's happy?

This weather!

So warm and spring time-ish!!

Too bad I can't get out and enjoy it...

Too bad I'm sitting here on the computer instead of taking a walk...

Hm...

You know what guys?

Hasta luego!

Jejejeee }:)


~Isa

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Cuan grande es Dios!

:)


Multi-tasking

If you are a non-spanish speaker reading my blog

Please excuse the spanish posts.

I'm doing a little multi-tasking...

Blogging and studying spanish vocab :)

Now for my second post today! :D

.
.
.

Hoy, antes de voluntar, fui con mi madre a un velatorio para la madre de una amiga de mi madre.

Todos los parientes de la mujer asistieron.

Yo conoci al nieto y la hija de la mujer (el sobrino y hermana de la amiga de mi madre).

Tambien, vi fotos de todo la familia: los casados, los hermanos, los hermanastros, los hijos, las madres y madrastras, las nueras, los padrinos, los primos, los sobrinos, los suegros, los tios, y los yernos.

Estaba un suceso muy triste, pero estoy feliz que podíamos asistir.



Mas tarde, fui al hospital.

Cuando estaba sentando a el escritorio, un hombre le vio mi tarea y dijo:

<<Estas estudiando espanol? Como va?>>

Yo: <<eh...Mas o menos... estoy en...>>  Traté de encontrar las palabras correctas, <<uh... he estudiado espanol para cuatro anos!>>
Yo estaba muy avergonzado!! :P

<<Está bien>> dijo con un sonrisa.



Esta noche, estoy soñando de verano, y las frutas y veduras de las meses frescas!

Ayer, tome' un aguacate de la refrigerator para madurar.

Me encanta los aguacates!

No puedo esperar para las frambuesas, fresas, mandarinas, manzanas, narajas, uvas, zarzamoras, peras y duraznos de las jardines y arboledas, o los ajos, apios, batatas, calabazas, cebollas, repollos, coliflores, grabanzos, rfijoles, lechuga, legumbres, lentejas, papas, pepinos, perejiles, pimientos, tomates o zanahorias.

Pero la fruta no crece en el invierno :(



Una ventaja del invierno es que el frio mata los insectos!

No hay abejas, avispas, cucarachas, grillos, gusanos, hormigas, mariposas, moscas, mosquitos, pulgas o saltamontes en el invierno.

Me moleste los insectos. Pues, me encanta el invierno!

Da gracias al Senor para el invierno!! :)



Bueno, tki.

Hasta luego!



~
Isabel

Sea optimista...

Manana puede ser mucho peor.
Jajajaaa x)



SALUDOS!!

Hoy es miercoles.

Un otro dia en la vida diaria de Isabel.

Tengo mucha tarea que hacer hoy.  Hay de mi...

Si fuera inteligente, haria mi tarea mas temprano cada semana.

Pero como siempre, soy tanta, loca y divertidaaaa!!!

Sea lo que sea, no me importa!

K buenoooo!!!

Pues, hoy estoy alegre porque esta tarde vere mis amigas cuando voy a voluntar!!

Me encanta voluntar! Voluntar es vivr! 

Y manana...  ESPANOL!!!!

Espera.. espanol? No he hecho mi tarea!!!! Estoy muerto!!!!!!!

Que plomoooooo!!!

Pues, tengo que irme..

Nos vemos!

~Isabel

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Que rico!!

In seach of dairy free food

(and a way to procrastinate homework)

I've been trying lots of recipes.



Yesterday, I found a recipe for "Cinnamon Almonds".



You mix sugar and spices and bake them in the oven, almost like carmal corn.

They turned out kinda glazed, which wasnt exactly what I was aiming for

But they're still yummy and dairy freeeeeeee!





This morning,

I decided to try a recipe for

"Soy Pancakes"


Also dairy free. 

(We used an egg substitute of water, oil and baking powder.)

This recipe 

is SO GOOD!!!

Maybe even better than normal pancakes.

They have a sweet vanilla-almondy flavor

And they're super fluffy because there's so much baking soda/powder.

Lmk if you want the recipe!

I highly recommend it!!





Thats all for now...


Have a LOVE-ly day! Lol


~Isa

♥ Feliz Día de San Valentín ♥


  

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Music. Coffee. Pancakes.

Doesn't the title sound like the perfect way to start your morning?

Listen to some nice happy music, while enjoying coffee and pancakes.

That's acutally not what this post is about.

But it is...



Ok,

I am soooo excited for this semester-

Specifically, for the musical part of it!


The new Music. is challenging, but beeeyouteefull! :)

The challenge is good too,

It gives more motivation to work hard on the different parts and get them down.





This week has been busy-ish.

Lotsa stuff going.

And my dear friend came back from school for the week!

I love her lots- {Katie}

She's really supportive and encouraging and so sweet!

Anyways, over the weekend she took me out for COFFEE. :D


It was special :)

We had a fun time.





The other day, I decided to find a dairy free pancake recipe.

Grr.

Why do practically all recipes for Pancakes. call for Milk?!?!?!?! and EGG!!!

And the ones that dont call for Milk call for ingredients I dont have

Like: rice flour, rice milk, and soy yogurt.

I think this calls for more experimenting!!!

I find it hard to believe that a pancake MUST have milk to turn out ok.

What about those boxed ones from the store that say: "Just add water"??



If Aunt Jemima can "Just Add Water" to her pancakes,

I can just add water to our pancakes too!!
So HA.

I shall inform you of the result.




So there you have it- my week: Music. Coffee. Pancakes.



~Isa

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Brownies, Birthdays, etc.

Guess what I discovered today?
"Microwave Brownie in a Mug"!!!

Let me tell you... if you've never made it, it's soooo yummyyy!
If you want to try it:
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons water or milk
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 dash salt
  • 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 
  • 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • cappuccino powder to taste (optional)
  • chocolate syrup (optional)
Directions:
In a 12 oz coffee mug, add water, butter, vanilla and dash of salt. Whisk well.
Add cocoa powder, whisk well. Add sugar, whisk well. Add cappuccino powder (optional). Add flour, whisk well.
Microwave for 60 to 90 seconds. (Less is better) Center should be slightly molten. Careful not to overcook.
Top with chocolate syrup. (optional)
Enjoy with a spoon. Careful, brownie will be hot.




Today was fun! Got to spend a little time with 2 dear friends, one of whom has a birthday today:


She's so sweet and a beautiful girl inside and out! :)
Happy Bday, Jenn!!!! <3  





Oh yes, I forgot!
I got a phoneeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well actually, we got a phone. My sis and I.
And it doesn't have texting or free nights or weekends...
And it only has limited minutes and it's pretty much for emergencies and stuff.
But still...
A PHONE!! :D

Anyways, funny story: I'm at a thingy today and people are like: "You got a phone??? What's your number?"
And I'm like: "I don't know.. let me look.."
"You don't know your own number??"
"Haha.. no."
So I dug through all my stuff but I couldn't find the number! Lol
It was only later that I realized I could have called them and my number would've showed up on their phones! Silly me :P



Well I'd love to write more, but I have ton's of stuff to do.

Have a nice day!

~Isa

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Feliz Cumpleanos a Mi!!

Today is a special day!



Today is the 1 year anniversary of my blog!

One year ago yesterday,

Sam and Em started their blogs.

Not wanting to be left out, I started mine the day after. :)

Their goal was to post one picture a day for 365 days.

My goal, since I'm not a photographer, was to do one post per day for 365 days.

We were pretty successful at keeping up with our goals at first,

But overtime, our blog posts have slowed a bit, and changed a lot.

I don't post every day now, but I'm still bloggin' :D

We've learned so much and have many fond memories of blogging together.

I'm looking forward to another amazing year!!!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Hoy:

Today has been lovely.

The weather has been gorgeous!
Which is helpful, because my job volunteering involves me making small talk,
And it’s more cheery to make small talk about the weather when the weather is nice!
Today I decided I like discharges better than phone answering.
It’s much easier to talk to patients than to try to juggle Dr.’s and Nurses on phone lines…
Was I supposed to write that down? How do I put them on hold? Call who?? AKK!
It’s ok though- I love volunteering regardless of which part I’m doing!


So what have I been doing with my spare time lately?
Lots of things!
Among them:
Talking on the phone and baking!
Ask my friends: they always seem to call when I’m baking Lol

Yesterday I tried that new recipe I was telling you about: Pumpkin Apple Strudel Muffins!

They’re really moist and textured, and also rather sweet.
Unfortunately, I made a little “boo-boo”… I added eggs!
Which means they weren’t dairy free.
:P
Oh well, they still tasted good.
It just meant less of my family could eat them.


Today I made “Eggnog Cheesecake”.
We had lots of “soy-nog” in the fridge that needed using so I decided to try something new!

It turned out sweet, fluffy and rich!
I really liked the flavor! If you like eggnog you would too.
So try making it next time you have leftover eggnog!


Ok so guess what?
My t-shirt design won for math team second year in a row!!!!
I’m... honored :)
And super excited!!!
:DDDDDDDDDD

Speaking of t-shirts… I just realized I never posted my story!
“The T-shirt Printer”
I wrote it for a thingy on my friend Sam's blog.
And since I hardly ever write stories,
I thought I'd post it.
Most of you have probably already read it.
But for those who haven’t….
I’ll post it soon!

That’s all for now…

Hasta luego!

~Isa